It was close to the time of Dhuhr upon waking. I went down to the ground level of the masjid and took a seat amongst the many others waiting for the adhaan.
One feels the anticipation of those surrounding you before the adhaan. It as if a loved one has informed you that he or she will call you at a certain time, and you sit by the phone waiting for it to ring. The preparation before our salah is all of this to a greater and grander scale, in which one goes through both physical and mental preparation. For salah is an intimate conversation for the servant with his most Beloved, the Master of the Day of Judgement.
As we waited anxiously for the adhaan to grace our ears for yet another time, I had the opportunity to watch several children in the row in front of me. One thing that one does not get to appreciate as much during Hajj is the beauty and lessons for us in children. During Ramadan in the Haram, one sees many children and families.
Directly in front of me were two young boys sitting quietly, as if in awe of all the people surrounding them. A large man stepped in front of me and seemed poised to literally step on one of the boys. With the greatest and gentlest manner, he tapped one of the boys lightly, picked him up briefly and set him down softly just beside the place of prayer he had just made for himself. An act of mercy. Yet this was but another infinitesimal manifestation of the one part of Allah�s Mercy which has been sent down to all of creation for all of time and space until the Day of Judgement. On that Day, the other 99 parts will be made evident. And all the mercy in the world that we have seen and will see, and all the mercy that our parents, and their parents, and their ancestors have seen only account for an infinitesimal portion of that one part of Allah�s mercy. Subhanallah!
Just to my left and in front of me there was another group of children, apparently two brothers and their sister. The sister was quietly reading Qur�an, sitting next to her father who was doing the same. The younger brothers were playing around poking each other in the shoulder. Occasionally the sister would disengage from her reading of the Qur�an and poke one of her brothers. Their father�s eyes were fixed on the mushaf he was reading, though he periodically glanced momentarily in their direction to keep them in line.
On seeing these children I thought of a young boy performing Sai� with his family. He was very skinny, and sickly and weak appearing, and it looked as if he was actively struggling with a gastroenteritis of some sort. Yet despite all of that he was making the Sai� with enthusiasm, walking ahead of his parents, who were working to keep pace with him and almost amazed to see their son walk with such strength.
Allah has blessed us with a fitra and an inclination towards serving and worshiping him. And He has blessed us with the n�imah of Islam, which is within every single one of us. The young boy was not yet at a discerning age, and the true faith was not yet in his heart, but the natural enthusiasm and inclination to serve and glorify Allah was distinctly manifest as he surged ahead of his family as he made the Sai�. In time, inshallah, he will grow up to be a man, and inshallah he will be a great servant of Allah, performing many more acts of worship with the sincerity of faith. Yet all of that will simply be that initially planted ni�mah within him becoming more manifest.
We often times tend to feel good about ourselves and give ourselves credit in how many good deeds we do, how many prayers we offer, how much Qur�an or ahadith we know and so on. And we often do this as we compare ourselves to fellow Muslims who we see are not doing these same external actions to the extent that we are doing so. Yet instead of exalting ourselves, we should in fact be more humbled, for none of this is from us. We have accomplished nothing. Allah, out of His grace, has given us tawfeeq, and enabled us to begin to recognize and actualize that potential and n�imah which has been within us long before. With this tawfeeq from Allah, one cannot help but perform such deeds, just as that sickly boy could not but help to surge forward in his Sai�, for the n�imah given to him and us automatically propels us in that direction. And for those of our brothers and sisters who appear weak to us in their external actions, weak in their belief, they have not yet been given the grace and tawfeeq from Allah to recognize the n�imah, as it remains veiled from them. Yet if the tawfeeq comes, their hearts and position with Allah may be so much greater than ours, and they may surge ahead of us on the Day of Judgement as the young boy surged ahead of his parents during Sai. O Allah protect the Muslims from self-righteousness and the judging of others, for you Allah are the only Judge and know the hearts of people and their ultimate position with You. Give us tawfeeq to recognize the n�imah of Islam that you have given us! You are the Most Gracious, Most Merciful!